For a last-place team, the Pittsburgh Pirates sure do a lot of interesting things.
We've documented three cases of extremely random baseball history that the Pirates or Pirates players have been a part of in the last week (you can read about them here), and they added yet another one on Tuesday.
Per @OptaSTATS on Twitter:
Tonight the @Pirates' Alika Williams worked an 11-pitch walk against Josh Hader in his first career plate appearance.
That's the most pitches seen by any MLB batter who reached base safely in his first career plate appearance since pitches were first tracked in 1988.
The 24-year-old Williams was a draft pick in 2020 by the Tampa Bay Rays. He played his college ball at Arizona State University.
Williams is currently the No. 29 prospect in the Pirates organization.
Here's more on him from a portion of his MLB.com profile:
The glove lived up to advanced hype in college, and he showed enough bat for the Rays to take him and sign him under-slot as the No. 37 pick in the 2020 Draft. His glove-first reputation stayed with him as he made his way through Tampa Bay’s system, touching as high as Triple-A in 2021 and 2022. Questions about him being able to hit the ball hard enough to be a regular big leaguer remained, but the Pirates felt they saw enough to work with to acquire him in a trade for Robert Stephenson in early June.
Williams has been able to move to the top rung of the Minors -- the Pirates sent him to Triple-A after the trade -- because of his defense. He could play shortstop in the big leagues based on that alone for a long time, coupling that outstanding defense with above-average speed.
The Pirates lost to the Padres 5-1 and are now 44-57 on the season.
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